The Lego Movie

Do you want an argument for the existence of God? Watch The Lego Movie.

If you watch The Lego Movie, you might realize there’s a God. And not just because what was initially an ill-conceived 90-minute ad for a toy everyone already knows about turned out to be awesome anyway.

SPOILER ALERT: There is a God. He’s the man upstairs.

WARNING: Do not read this article unless you’ve already seen The Lego Movie, or have no intention of doing so because you hate fun. The article is very spoiler-heavy.

And yes, I’m warning you about spoilers. In a movie about Lego. What are Lego spoilers, anyway? Is that like skipping to the last page in one of their instruction manuals?

“Oh, look! It’s going to be a fire truck!”

Of course it is. When I was growing up, Lego came in boxes of random pieces. I made a lot of multi-colored houses back then. Whereas nowadays, you can buy a package of pieces that will help you make an incredibly detailed pirate ship, but are not very well suited to building anything else. Just the pirate ship. It’s like doing a puzzle, or buying something from IKEA. You buy pieces for a dresser, and you can’t use your imagination to build, say, a sofa. These pieces build a dresser.

So you build your pirate ship, and then what? Are you going to take it apart and put it back together again? How? The instructions were the first thing you lost! Maybe you should just glue it together, like a puzzle that you hang on your wall. No?

This is a question posed in the movie. The movie centers around Emmet, a Lego mini-figure, who, like Lego, is always getting stepped on. No one knows he exists, and his best friend, who he drinks coffee with every morning, is a potted plant. And it’s not even a real plant. It’s made out of Lego, which, to be fair, is exactly what he’s made of. Everything in this universe is made of Lego bricks, or, as the Lego people call them, bricks. The water is blue Lego bricks, the fires are orange, the smoke is grey. I don’t know what’s in the coffee mugs.

But one day, Emmet comes across a mysterious rectangular prism that’s not of this world, meaning it’s not made of Lego. And it gets stuck to his back.

This attracts the attention of the president, Lord Business (played by Will Ferrel), who kidnaps Emmet. Lord Business is into collecting strange artifacts, such as the Cloak of Bandai-eed, the Wand of Q-Teep, the Polish Remover of Na-eel, and various other gross things one might accidentally find mixed into a box of Lego. Even his cape is a clip-on tie. But his prized artifact is something he calls “The KRAGL” (actually a bottle of Krazy Glue with some letters rubbed off), and he plans to use it to glue the universe together so that no one can move at all, and he can have perfect order forever.

Emmet is rescued by a girl named Wyldstyle, who claims that, having found the “piece of resistance”, Emmet is the long-prophesied “Special” who will save the universe. Emmet has no idea what any of that means, but if it means that a girl wants to talk to him about it, then that’s okay with him.

Wyldstyle takes him to the various realms and introduces him to a team of “master-builders”, including, but not limited to: Lego Batman, Lego Morgan Freeman, Gandalf, Dumbledore, 1980-something Space Guy, and a robot pirate with laser-shark arms. The master-builders can create anything they can imagine in a matter of seconds with no instruction manuals.

(Meanwhile, I can’t even get two flat pieces apart without using my teeth.)

Together, they need to get Emmet back to Business’s tower and put the prism – actually the cover to the Krazy Glue – back on the KRAGL. Because once you put the cover on an open Krazy Glue, it’s never coming off again.

Do they have a plan? Not really. They’ll wing it.

“That was a bat-pun,” Batman says.

Never meet your heroes.

Yeah, I know. This all sounds like the kind of plot an 8-year-old would come up with. Or someone who’s been sniffing the glue.

Eventually, they get into the tower, but Business captures everyone, and to save the day, Emmet hurls himself out the window and into the deep abyss below. And when he gets to the bottom, he finds himself on… a carpet.

And then he looks up and realizes that his entire universe – everything he knew – is all located on a table in someone’s basement. And all these artifacts everyone keeps finding are really items from this bigger world that they don’t even realize exists, where this creator that they don’t even realize exists – apparently a young boy – is in fact acting out the story that they’re experiencing – the kind of story an 8-year-old would come up with.

But that’s not all. At this point, the kid’s father – the one some Lego characters think of as “the man upstairs” – comes down in his business suit and reprimands him for playing with the Legos. It turns out they’re mostly the father’s Legos.

“They’re not toys,” the father argues. “They’re a highly-sophisticated interlocking brick system.”

The father gets fed up and says he’s just going to glue everything down the way he wants it. And it’s up to the kid to get Emmet back to his world to, um, turn the tables on Lord Business, and also to actually convince his father that the point of the Legos is creativity and imagination.

Oh, and the father is played by Will Ferrel.

SPOILER ALERT: There is a God. He’s the man upstairs.

The evidence for God’s existence is all around.

Some people think God is made up. They think there’s no higher power, because they’ve never seen it. Because in that limited window of time when they’ve been on this earth, God never came down to personally show them his hand. Well, except for the miracles he actually does perform every day, but those don’t count, because he does them every day. They’re just life. So okay, how often would you say God has a responsibility to come down and show you things?

I’d argue that there’s evidence all around. There’s band-aids and krazy glue and neckties, and if you look closely at the spaceships, you can see strings. How closely do you look? Is it His responsibility to show you, or is it your responsibility to look?

God’s not going to hang out on the board with you. He created the board. Why on earth would he live here? If everything in our world – water, fire, smoke – is made of Lego, then the one who created the Lego wouldn’t exist here. He’s not made of Lego.

Our Rabbis say that God is called “Hamakom – the place” because God does not live in our world, our world lives in God. We all exist on a table in his basement.

Saying God doesn’t exist is the easy way out. It’s easier to believe that there’s no one out there demanding anything of us. But the job of a Jew is to see the evidence. That’s what makes us Special.

God is in our everyday lives. He’s not just the one who performs the big miracles, he’s the one who made the building blocks with which we continue to build, and the one who moves things around.

When you realize this, a lot of the randomness of our story makes sense.

There is a saying that fiction is easier to write than nonfiction, because in nonfiction, not everything has to add up. Coincidences happen.

But it turns out they don’t. In real life things make sense too; we’re just too small to always know how. Things make sense when you step off the table and see what’s really happening. But there’s no way we can see that from here. We’re Lego pieces.

See, the question isn’t whether Finn and his dad are real. The question is whether Emmet is.

Whoa. Turns out the abyss was pretty deep.

We live in a world of plastic, where God is hidden. We believe that when we get to the afterlife, the real world, the true world, the Olam Ha’Emmet – yes, Emmet – we get to look back and see the big picture. It’s only when Emmet steps outside the box that he can finally understand what’s going on.

(And no, we don’t actually have to die to find out if there’s a God. You know who else thinks outside the box? The master-builders.)

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 11

(10)
Anonymous,
April 14, 2014 9:38 PM

LOVED IT BUT SOMETHING DOESN'T CONNECT.

THIS ARTICLE is kind of implying that G-d is evil, as the man upstairs is a real life form of PRESIDENT BUSINESS, who wants everything run how he wants it and doesn't let anyone think outside the box and be their own person. Of couse, Hashem has strict rules for us, but not to that evil degree when it's not for own good. CLARIFY, PLEASE!!!

(9)
Beverly Kurtin,
April 3, 2014 8:23 PM

WE are the PROOF

We Jews are the undeniable proof of Hashem. How is it that we have managed to be a nation when we had no homeland? How is it we KNOW who we are when all of the other nations from a couple of thousand years ago have gone "POOF!"

There are times when my faith wavers, then something happens that yanks me back faster than Superman's bullet.

That said, I have the feeling that Hashem is like a quantum particle. Before someone screams, let me explain. A quantum particle can be in several places at the same time. I do not understand the physics behind quantum mechanics, I'd be lying if I said I did, but since Hashem can hear prayers no matter where they are spoken. How can that be? Quantum mechanics.

Hashem has let us discover many things, is this the proof of his omnipresence?

(8)
Gus Echenique,
February 22, 2014 12:07 AM

Does the man upstairs reveal the purpose of Emmet ?

The idea that God exists is all fine and good . But just precisely, if it can be known, whats the purpose of everything? What's Emmet purpose? What's my purpose? I mean I want to join the effort, I want to push the whole thing forward, but where are we going?

(7)
Akiva Meir Hersh,
February 21, 2014 7:49 PM

Great article...just one suggestions

Add talking points to discuss after movie to bring the emes home!

(6)
CL,
February 20, 2014 6:25 PM

1884 Novel: "Flatland"

This interpretation of the Lego movie reminds me of a book written in 1884 by Edwin Abbot, called "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," which a couple of films in the past decade have been based on. The story is told from the perspective of Mr. Square, who lives in a two-dimensional world, but who then experiences three-dimensional Spaceland, which he has difficulty describing to others in his own two-dimensional world.

This year during Chanukah I will be on a wilderness survival trip, and it will be very difficult to properly celebrate the holiday. I certainty won't be able to bring along a Menorah.

So if I am going to celebrate only one day of Chanukah, which is the most significant?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

If a person can only celebrate one day of Chanukah, he should celebrate the first day.

This is similar to a case where a person is in prison, and the authorities agree to permit him to go to synagogue one day. The law is that he should go at the first opportunity, and not wait for a more important day like the High Holidays.

The reason is because one should not allow the opportunity of a mitzvah to pass. Moreover, it is quite conceivable that circumstances will later change and allow for additional observance. Therefore, we do not let the first chance pass. (Sources: Code of Jewish Law OC 90, Mishnah Berurah 28.)

As an important aside, Chanukah candles must be lit in (or at the entrance to) a home rather than out of doors. Thus, you should not light in actual "wilderness," but only after you've pitched your tent for the night.

There may be another reason why the first night is the one to focus on. Chanukah is celebrated for eight days to commemorate the one-day supply of oil that miraculously burned for eight days. But if you think about it, since there was enough oil to burn naturally for one night, nothing miraculous happened on that first night! So why shouldn't Chanukah be just seven days?!

There are many wonderful answers given to this question, highlighting the special aspect of the first day. Here are a few:

1) True, the miracle of the oil did not begin until the second day, and lasted for only seven days. But the Sages designated the first day of Chanukah in commemoration of the miraculous military victory.

2) Having returned to the Temple and found it in shambles, the Jews had no logical reason to think they would find any pure oil. The fact that the Maccabees didn't give up hope, and then actually found any pure oil at all, is in itself a miracle.

3) The Sages chose Chanukah, a festival that revolves around oil's ability to burn, as the time to teach the fundamental truth that even so-called "natural" events take place only because God wants them to.

The Talmudic Sage Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa expressed this truth in explaining a miracle that occurred in his own home. Once, his daughter realized that she had lit the Shabbos candles with vinegar instead of oil. Rabbi Chanina calmed her, saying, "Why are you concerned! The One Who commanded oil to burn, can also command vinegar to burn!" The Talmud goes on to say that those Shabbos lights burned bright for many hours (Taanit 25a).

To drive this truth home, the Sages decreed that Chanukah be observed for eight days: The last seven to commemorate the miracle of the Menorah, and the first to remind us that even the “normal” burning of oil is only in obedience to God's wish.

In closing, I'm not sure what's stopping you from celebrating more than one day? At a minimum, you can light one candle sometime during the evening, and that fulfills the mitzvah of Chanukah - no “official Menorah” necessary. With so much joy to be had, why limit yourself to one night only?!

In 165 BCE, the Maccabees defeated the Greek army and rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Finding only one jar of pure oil, they lit the Menorah, which miraculously burned for eight days. Also on this day -- 1,100 years earlier -- Moses and the Jewish people completed construction of the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that accompanied them during 40 years of wandering in the desert. The Tabernacle was not dedicated, however, for another three months; tradition says that the day of Kislev 25 was then "compensated" centuries later -- when the miracle of Chanukah occurred and the Temple was rededicated. Today, Jews around the world light a Chanukah menorah, to commemorate the miracle of the oil, and its message that continues to illuminate our lives today.

A person who utilizes suffering to arouse himself in spiritual matters will find consolation. He will recognize that even though the suffering was difficult for him, it nevertheless helped him for eternity.

When you see yourself growing spiritually through your suffering, you will even be able to feel joy because of that suffering.

They established these eight days of Chanukah to give thanks and praise to Your great Name(Siddur).

Jewish history is replete with miracles that transcend the miracle of the Menorah. Why is the latter so prominently celebrated while the others are relegated to relative obscurity?

Perhaps the reason is that most other miracles were Divinely initiated; i.e. God intervened to suspend the laws of nature in order to save His people from calamity.

The miracle of the Menorah was something different. Having defeated the Seleucid Greek invaders, the triumphant Jews entered the Sanctuary. There they found that they could light the Menorah for only one day, due to a lack of undefiled oil. Further, they had no chance of replenishing the supply for eight days. They did light the Menorah anyway, reasoning that it was best to do what was within their ability to do and to postpone worrying about the next day until such worry was appropriate. This decision elicited a Divine response and the Menorah stayed lit for that day and for seven more.

This miracle was thus initiated by the Jews themselves, and the incident was set down as a teaching for all future generations: concentrate your efforts on what you can do, and do it! Leave the rest to God.

While even our best and most sincere efforts do not necessarily bring about miracles, the teaching is nevertheless valid. Even the likelihood of failure in the future should not discourage us from any constructive action that we can take now.

Today I shall...

focus my attention on what it is that I can do now, and do it to the best of my ability.

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